End of Watch
by Jameson Rook
Summary: "Dispatch, this is thirteen x-ray thirteen! We need back up ASAP, we're at address-." Ryan's voice was cut off when a stray bullet hit the walkie in his hand. He let out a yelp and dropped the crumpled remains of the walkie talkie and looked at the crimson blood staining his palm. Kevin/Javier partnership
1. Author's Note

_** Disclaimer: Castle and all of its characters belong to Andrew W. Marlowe, Terri Edda Miller, and ABC Studio Productions. "End of Watch" belongs to David Ayer. **_

_** So, Friday I went and saw "End of Watch". As an LEO, that is the most amazing, raw, emotional and realistic police film that I have ever seen. It doesn't portray cops as corrupt, terrible people, it shows the majority of police officers. It shows legitimate police officers that are decent people. That being said, it was very, very sobering. It made my best friend of 10 years sob. I have never seen that man cry, and I think it brought to his attention the fact that there is a chance that I may not come home from work one night. I highly recommend going to see the movie. I did, however, spend a good part of the movie thinking 'oh my God, Officers Taylor and Zavala remind me of Ryan and Esposito!'. So I figured that I would write this. Due to that connection between this amazing movie, and my favorite dynamic duo, this fic is very close to my heart.**_

_** In my opinion, Ryan and Esposito are the most intricate dynamic that this show has to offer, but then again that might be because I am aware of how real police partners interact. So, here is the "Ryan and Esposito version" of the end of "End of Watch". So, if you haven't seen the movie and you don't want it to be spoiled, do not read where this fic will go. **_


	2. End of Watch

"Dispatch, this is thirteen x-ray thirteen! We need back up ASAP, we're at address-." Ryan's voice was cut off when a stray bullet hit the walkie in his hand. He let out a yelp and dropped the crumpled remains of the walkie talkie and looked at the crimson blood staining his palm.

"You hit?!" Esposito hollered as they sprinted from the open area into a smaller room away from the spray of the gang member's bullets. The men collapsed behind an upended table, their chests heaving, and stared at one another in shock.

"What the _fuck_?!" Esposito breathed, glancing at Ryan's bleeding hand. Ryan peeked around the corner of the table, wincing when a bullet whizzed by his head.

"Cartel must have sent them. We've been set up, dude." Ryan shook his head and dropped his head to the forehead briefly. He inhaled the scent of gunpowder that hung in the air. "How the hell did we not see this coming?"

"Bro, they've got us pinned." Esposito hissed just loud enough to be heard over the _ping_ of bullets on the doorframe a few feet away from them. Ryan nodded his agreement and reloaded his gun with his last magazine, careful to avoid the wound on his hand.

"We're going to have to shoot our way out of here." He replied, reloading his gun, careful of his bleeding hand. . He pushed himself up onto his elbow and peered over the top of the table that they were hiding behind carefully. "On the count of three, empty your mag, and _run_. Got it?" Esposito nodded and they both moved into a crouching position. "One. Two." They glanced at each other again, the look concealing so much in the silence. "Three."

The men popped out from behind the table, their guns blazing. Bullets sprayed the ground around their feet as they emptied their magazines. The men reloaded as they sprinted across the room and into the hallway. Ryan led the way, his gun in front of him, until he found an unlocked apartment.

He opened the door and they moved in without bothering to knock, and slammed the door behind them. The hispanic woman inside the room began sputtering agitated Spanish at them over the sound of her infant screaming in her arms.

"Ma'am, we're police, we need to hide in here." Ryan began, trying to reason with the woman. When she ignored his words, and continued glaring at him and yelling, he gave up trying to remain professional. "SHUT THE HELL UP!" His chest heaved as his eyes scanned over the dingy apartment carefully. "Do you have a phone?" She stared at him blankly until Esposito repeated the statement in Spanish. She pointed to the counter and Ryan moved quickly to pick up the phone, his gun still pointed at the door.

Esposito was busy trying to calm the woman and her baby, Spanish flying from him as he gestured emphatically as Ryan dialed dispatch. The line picked up after the second ring.

"Dispatch."

"Yeah, it's thirteen x-ray thirteen again. We need additional units, and we need them like ten minutes ago." He rattled off the address before disconnecting and dropping the phone back onto the counter top.

"Kev, we can't stay here, you know that. We've got to keep moving." Esposito's voice was low and even as he spoke. Ryan nodded, knowing that his partner was right. He heard shuffling footsteps outside the door and they moved in tandem to the window and tore the curtain off of the rod. They both slipped out the window and dropped the couple feet to the ground.

"This way." Ryan hissed as they started running down the alleyway. The echoes of dogs barking at them as the animals clawed at fences filled the air. Ryan looked around them, panic finally setting in. They hooked a left and continued running until they reached a large, cement wall. "Shit..." He breathed.

"Alley-oop?" Esposito questioned, quirking his eyebrow and crouching, his hands hooked together. Ryan stepped back a few feet before running forward and stepping on Esposito's hands so that his partner could hoist him over the wall.

He landed with a soft thud seconds before Esposito followed him over. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of a car to their left caught his attention. He pulled the trigger as the man pulled a gun from the passenger's seat and aimed it at him. The bullet tore through the man's skull, creating a pink mist across the inside of the windshield. Esposito grimaced as he glanced at what his partner had done, but he shook it off and they continued down the alleyway.

They had almost made it to the end of the alley when a car's headlights illuminated them. His heart caught in his throat as optimism overwhelmed him.

"Is that us? Has the calvary arrived?" He whispered. He almost believed that it could honestly be a squad car coming to save them, except that there were no lights. No sirens. No sign that it could be. The breath left his chest when a body hung out the window and he could vaguely make out the outline of an automatic rifle. The gangster called out something that he couldn't quite hear before the _rat-tat-tat_ of the rifle filled the air. His body jerked with the impact of the bullet.

He felt his body warming as he collapsed to the pavement. At first he thought that the pain he felt was just the impact and that his Kevlar had taken the lead for him. It wasn't until Esposito fell to his knees beside him and slid his fingers under Kevin's uniform to check and his hand came out covered in bright red blood that he knew he was in trouble. He let out a pained cough as the metallic taste of blood coated his lips and tongue.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." Javier muttered, his hand pressing over the wound. Kevin winced at the feeling of the pressure on his chest. "Look at me, bro, you gotta stay awake."

"I d-don't wanna die here, Javi." He muttered, his voice raspy and low. Javier shook his head adamently.

"You're not gonna die here, we've got a bus on the way. Back up's coming, bro."

"Not gonna b-be here fast enough." Kevin gasped, trying to suck in precious air. "This is bad."

"Listen to me, Kevin, you're gonna be fine." Javier seemed to either be unaware of the tears slipping down his face or his just didn't give a damn at that moment.

"T-tell Jenny that I l-love her." His blue eyes stared into clouded mocha colored ones.

"You tell her yourself. We'll be laughing about this later, bro." Kevin shook his head lightly. Soft, painful sobs tore from Kevin's chest as he buried his face against Javier's chest, his hands fisting in the other man's uniform. "It's okay, Kev, it's okay. It's okay to do that now." Javier whispered against his ear.

"I love you, bro. You're my best friend and I love you." Kevin choked out, pressing his forehead against Javier's.

"I love you too, Kevin. Until the wheels fall off." He replied, his own tears clinging to his cheeks. Kevin let his head fall back to the pavement and his eyes fluttered closed. Javier stared at him, his sobs becoming heavier by the second. The sound of footsteps behind him made the cries die in his throat. He didn't turn around. He didn't reach for his weapon. He just leaned back and let his chin fall to his chest.

It wasn't long after that the bullets tore through his torso. His body shook with the impact of the bullets as he fell forward, his body blanketing Kevin's. The last thing he felt before the darkness closed in on him, was the soft rise and fall of Kevin's chest.

Kevin felt the weight of Javier on his chest, and then he felt the warm seep of his partner's blood as it hit his skin. He fought to cling on to the last recesses of life that were skating around his conciousness. The flash of red and blue lights around him had him opening his eyes carefully, the simple action bringing a wave of pain that made him naseous.

Gunfire erupted once again at the end of the alleyway, and shouts echoed off of the walls of the buildings surrounding the alley. He mustered all of his strength and allowed his head to fall to the side so that he could see around Esposito, and he caught sight of the gang members crumbling to the pavement. He felt a sense of relief flooding over him as one of the cruisers pulled a few feet away. He saw Beckett and Castle practically tumbling out of the car as they rushed to his side.

"It's them!" Castle bellowed, waving over the other officers and the ambulance.

"Javier!" He heard Beckett's voice, though it sounded distant as he felt her shaking Esposito's still body. He sucked in as deep of a breath as he could manage when Beckett rolled Eposito off of him and their gazes filled his vision. The last thing he remembered before the EMT's loaded him into the ambulance and whisked him away to the hospital (where, two blood transfusions and three surgeries later, he would live to fight another day and stand up to give the eulogy at his best friend's memorial service) was that Javier Esposito had given his life protecting him. His partner had been a hero. Fearless. Courageous. But he also knew that the thin blue line had gotten a little bit thinner that night that Javier took his last breath.

Bagpipes, snare drums, and a sea of blue uniforms marked the end of watch for one of the true blue, American warriors. And, even though his arm was in a sling, and he was hobbling on a crutch, Captain Montgomery had tucked his arm around Kevin's waist to help him up and allowed him to move to the podium. As he stared back out at the rest of his fellow officer's, he felt his throat tightening with emotion.

"Esposito was..." That was all that he could get out before the parade of memories hit him. Esposito as his best man at his and Jenny's wedding. He and Esposito graduating the academy and walking their first beat together. Esposito discussing the fact that Lanie was _finally _pregnant and he was going to get to be their baby's Godfather. Before he could get anything else out, tears began streaming down his face.

He shook his head and hobbled his way back down to his seat. Jenny's arm wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him close. He couldn't hear the whispered comforts that he gave her over the sound of his blood rushing in his ears. The only thing that he caught from her was a single statment.

"I'm so sorry."

Everyone was always sorry. They gave him their condolances, and they sent covered dishes to the apartment. The guys in the precinct had all stopped by to have a beer with him in Esposito's memory. The one thing that none of them realized was that they couldn't possibly know what he was going through. He'd felt the life leaking out of his best friend, and he'd lived. He would never get to climb back into a cruiser in the morning and _know _that the man sitting beside him had his back. He was gone.

_The morning of the shooting..._

_ "I wanna have a daughter some day, man. That would be so cool." Ryan mused, sipping the Red Bull in his hand. Esposito smirked and nodded his agreement. _

_ "Just don't let her date cops." He chuckled. Ryan glared at him, all of his muscles tense. _

_ "She's not dating anyone." He replied._

_ "Oh, okay." Esposito gave another nervous chuckle at the statement. Ryan's face remained stoic._

_ "Ever." He held the face a few more seconds before the men crumbled into laughter that was so hard that they had tears running down their face. Kevin smiled as he realized that this was one of the moments that you lived for. Being a police officer, he never knew when he might not come home at night, and being partnered with Esposito somehow made him more confident. He knew that Esposito was going to get him home to Jenny every night, no matter what the cost was. _

_ "You know something, man, I love you, dude. If something happened to you, I would take care of your kids." Esposito muttered, all traces of the laughter having fallen from his voice. "I would lay down my life for you, bro." _

_ Kevin grinned and nodded his response. They would both sacrifice everythign for one another. Lucky for them, that wasn't going to be an issue for them. _

_**Thoughts? Drop me a review and let me know. **_

_** Much love,**_

_** J. Rook**_


End file.
